


A new Hermit

by CollistaForest



Category: Hermitcraft, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Evolution, Grian is gonna be a bamf, Hermitcraft - Freeform, but he baby, wingged Grian au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2020-07-28 23:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 23,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20072539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CollistaForest/pseuds/CollistaForest
Summary: Grian had to stop himself from growling in exasperation. "Why send me in? There are the Valkyrie you could send in, or Taurtis, you could send in Taurtis instead of me.""Little empire," The first Watcher sounded tired, not at Grian, but at the universe. "There is solitude amongst the players, almost like a discordant note in a peaceful melody. They are all friends, but they would prefer to hide away and build their bases instead of interacting with each othe-""Basically," The Watcher on Grain's right, the grumpy one, cut off the other. "We need you and your mischief to go down there and prank them into friendship."





	1. The Aether

He would say it was lonely in the Aether, endless floating islands in skies far above any land, but it wasn't mostly. When Grian wasn't trying to fly with his brand new fully feathered wings or playing with the aerbunnies, he met with The Watchers that lived in the golden temples to learn how to build structures and riddles not unlike The Watcher's own.

The classes weren't very entertaining, although being a structural builder himself, he really has no interest in copy and pasting the predetermined towers.

It was lonely, however, sitting on the steps to a golden temple, holding a dead communicator in his hands as he Watched over his old world with all of his friends roaming around.

Grian let the small sphere float in front of his eyes as he leaned against a pillar. From the outside, he could almost see Netty hopping along her treehouse, or Zee running around Downtown Evo that Grian himself had built most of. He was excited to see Pearl continue on the Grian Empire, even recruiting another player he hadn't met before.

It would become saddening after Watching the world after a while. He knew that since he had become a Watcher, he would never be able to go and talk with his friends any longer. He wouldn't be able to mess around with Netty, or bomb Salem, or set up secret rooms to spy on all his friends…

Or even just sit down and chat with them like he did in the early days, before he was able to have loads of TNT whenever he stood underneath a mob farm for less than five seconds.

He almost threw his communicator when someone yelled from behind him.

Taurtis. Of course it was Taurtis, it's always Taurtis.

"Hey Gri, what are you up to?" The blue-clad Taurtis stepped over to sit right onto Grian's hip, fluttering out his dark blue dragon-esque wings. Spreading one of them behind Grian, he gave the two of them a little alone space from the other Watchers.

Grian didn't respond at first, just moving his eyes from Taurtis to the small spinning world in front of him. The other takes one look at the globe and his eyes go wide.

"You were assigned Evo? Our old server?"

"Just to Watch for now, not allowed to hop in and make any buildings yet. I can only look for now."

"Its a bit cruel. You were torn away from them, fought an Ender Dragon all alone and never got to say goodbye to them." Taurtis almost turned to glare to the temple The Watchers resided in, but a weak hand stopped from turning his head too far, just enough to face Grian again.

"At least they didn't kill me." He joked, a small smile on his lips as he drew the other's attention back. "From all the pranks I pulled on the world, I was sure they were going to kill me the second I arrived here."

"Most of them were harmless, weren't they?"

"Disaster is disaster in their eyes," Grian moved his hand to touch the clear protective layering around the world. "If something bad is done, it must be punished."

Grian paused to look back to his best friend, feeling the smile on his face grow just a tad bit more. "At least, that's what they think."

Taurtis was going to reply with something snarky against The Watchers, a lady Valkyrie came from the temple. The woman, Gertrude, Grian believes, taps him on the head to draw his attention.

"The elders need you in the Watching room, I think they have a new task for you." The lady said in her deep, rough voice. From there, she walked out, ignoring Grian's half-voiced words that were supposed to be questions on why he was needed.

Taurtis rose, borderline dragging his friend up with him.

"I think you might want to get going, you know how they are about you being late." Taurtis softly punches Grian as a form of " _ get going before they kill us both, my dude _ ".

Grian nods, voicing a little "Bye!" as he runs off with the Evo planet in hand and his wings flexing nervously behind him.

To say the golden temple is a maze is a little underwhelming of a name for it. A labyrinth is more accurate but still doesn't capture the pure confusion anyone who hasn't recognized the full layout of the temple will undoubtedly have.

A few left turns, a staircase here and there, and a single right turn that leads you down the longest corridor in existence, and you're at the Watching room.

Needless to say, Grian got lost a few times before he finally found the room again.

"Welcome back, little empire. We have a mission for you." One of the two head honchos in the room greeted him, pulling him into the room with a long boney hand around Grian's thin wrist.

Scuffing his feet against the obsidian flooring, he looked to where the two Watchers stood, leaning against a dark oak table with six separate Worlds floating in the air.

From looking, he could see player-made mountains, buildings that reach the sky, colorful wool and barely hidden dungeons. He couldn't help but be impressed by the amount of detail in each separate build, even with the older builds, which had limited blocks available with even more limited resources.

He almost felt the Grian Empire become obsolete in the presence of the amazing bases in these worlds.

Though, five of the seven… were completely barren of any life. No players, hardly any Villagers… almost abandoned looking.

He turned his head to the two Watchers, who were focused on the highest floating world.

"These players, nicknamed The Hermits, have been world hopping instead of updating. We think it is something to do with faulty portal or their admin, Xisuma, possibly doing something to make world hops instead of updating." The Watcher on his left looked to the other, letting the slightly grumpier of the two speak.

"Xisuma has also made a barrier between us and them without actually knowing who we are, which is aggravating to say the least."

"That being said," The Watcher who dragged Grian into the room spoke, "We need someone who isn't fully a Watcher to infiltrate and fix the update portals, so we're calling you in to handle this."

Grian had to stop himself from growling in exasperation. "Why send me in? There are the Valkyrie you could send in, or Taurtis, you could send in Taurtis instead of me."

"Little empire," The first Watcher sounded tired, not at Grian, but at the universe. "There is solitude amongst the players, almost like a discordant note in a peaceful melody. They are all friends, but they would prefer to hide away and build their bases instead of interacting with each othe-"

"Basically," The Watcher on Grain's right, the grumpy one, cut off the other. "We need you and your mischief to go down there and prank them into friendship."

Grian stood for a solid minute, still and the most incredulous look on his face.

"Surely there is a better plan than-"

"Its the only plan we have, little empire."

He stopped, wings threatening to catch nonexistent wind and drag him right out of the room. One of his hands decided to smooth down a few feathers as he thought.

It would be a great opportunity to make friends, seeing as that is one of his main goals for going. But that also means he would be taken away from them eventually. Would it be after he's figured out how to fix their portal or after he brought everyone in the planet together, mutual best friends everywhere…

Making friends in the Hermits sounded like a splendid idea, if this was any other situation he would jump in glee. However, the thought of being torn away from his friends again was a little too much to handle.

If he did… would he even be able to say goodbye this time?

And who would even Watch over Evo while he was away? Taurtis? Not that he doesn't trust him to handle the world they were both apart in, it's that he… doesn't… trust Taurtis to handle the world.

Taurtis already has his own world to look after, he doesn't need another.

Grian screwed up his face. He didn't have to make friends with the Hermits, he just had to make sure they would befriend each other, that's all. There is no need to get deeply involved with the Hermits at all.

Letting go of a breath he held for too long, Grian looked back to the highest floating planet.

"I'll do it, I just want to say goodbye to-"

"What's going on, Gri?"

For the second time this hour, Taurtis almost made Grian throw something. This time, it would've been hands. 

"Taurtis! What are you doing down here?"

"Dont worry Gri," Taurtis held onto the sleeves of his friend's sweater, preventing the other from punching him in the face easily. "I just came by to drop something off."

Taurtis pulled out a blue and yellow communicator from his pocket, taking Grian's hand and placing it inside the smaller's hand. With it, he only said "So we can talk later."

Grian was about to say something, but Taurtis pulled away, turning back into the corridor and spreading his wing.

"Wait- Taurtis!"

"Later, Grian!"

This time, Grian did huff and pout when Taurtis left his sight. He turned, glaring at the two Watchers who only smiled down at him without a word.

Grumbling, Grian shoved the smaller communicator into his jean pocket, fingers brushing against the world of Evo he shoved in there earlier. He pulled the sphere out, eyeing it to make sure nothing had changed and addressed the others.

"Will I still be able to watch after Evo while I'm in the Hermit's planet?"

"Yes, only if you do not let any of the Hermits see it. From here on out, you are just a normal player again, but the Hermits must know of the Watcher's existence, so they know they have someone looking after their worlds."

"Alright…" Grian let the world drop back into his pocket. "Do I get to keep the wings though? I think they're pretty nifty and would be useful getting around their world."

The Watchers stared at eachother for a second before sighing simultaneous.

"Yes," They chorused.

"Yay!"

"Now, little empire, don't forget why you're going into this world."

"Fix portals and fix friendships, I got this." Hyping himself up, Grian flexed his feathers, minutely fanning his wings out behind him.

"Good, now let's begin."


	2. Falling and Gathering

Falling through the air to the world of Hermitcraft wasn't unlike falling through an update portal back in Evo. It fell like an endless free fall with an ending that was typically the dirt.

Currently nose diving downwards, Grian was beyond overjoyed with the breeze he was making that rushed through his hair and shook his feathers. Wind rushed his ears as the sea came into view, then the small islands and large mountains appeared as he got further and further toward the surface.

He reached the spawn point of the island, quickly fanning out his wings in order to slow his descent to land on the island with his own two feet.

There wasn't much around, a small abandoned base in the side of a mountain, a few scattered crafting tables and furnaces, some replanted trees here and there. Though, everything looked…. Different. 

Grian wasn't in a world during the past few updates, unable to see the new mechanics and design changes all around him. Even  _ leaves  _ looked different than what he remembered!

He sighed and resigned himself to punch down the first tree he saw, which was, expectedly, oak.

Using the first block to make himself a crafting table,he almost screamed as he set it down two blocks away from someone else's table.

He took a deep breath or two and stepped away from the two tables, finishing up with breaking down the entire tree. He also calmed himself down a bit more by knocking down all the rest of the floating trees drifting around.

He broke most of them down into planks, but used the rest to make a boat and a couple of shovels, doing a little terraforming and grabbing tons of sand and dirt before drifting away on his little boat.

It was while he was drifting in the sea that he found a new communicator in his pocket. He set both the green and blue one aside re reveal a slightly more advanced version of the two communicators he already had.

On the red communicator, he read the list of players in this world, reading through the names of people who were online and those who didn't want to be disturbed.

Someone named Scar was currently moving around, and from the quick glimpse of a map he saw before he was tossed into the world, he should be near Scar's island.

Docking the boat, Grian took a look around the pirate-themed island. Everything looked  _ just perfect _ and his heart swelled and he had to fight against the unbearable urge to pick apart the entire island to see how the design was put together.

A figure bobbing in water inside of a nearby player-made cave drew his attention. Taking a few steps back, Grian saw the one he believed to be scar swimming below the water's surface.

He took a step forward, not being noticed. A few more steps, a yell "Hello?", and Scar was drowning underwater.

Well, he was drowning when Grian arrived. He died a few seconds after Grian tried to greet himself, causing the winged Hermit to jump back as items exploded around the area.

Now finding himself hovering a few feet above the ground, Grian lightly touched down to the ground. Well, if Scar didn't respawn nearby, then his items might despawn before he got back…

Good a time as any to start some community service and build up a Good Guy reputation.

He made a chest and set it a few blocks above where Scar exploded, slowly tossing in any items that were in the water stream, almost stopping when a full stack of diamond blocks caught his eye.

Now, he wasn't about to steal or cause any pranks just yet, but the thought of someone having so much when he only had a bit of wood and a boat amazed him. From the debriefing on this world, The Watchers had mentioned it had only existed for a little longer than a week.

It was truly astounding…

On the front of the chest, he put up a small sign with a signature of  _ Good Guy Grian who will definitely not prank you later _ .

It's perfect. 

He left the sign, gliding out of the small cave and into his own small and dingy boat.

From there on, he finally settled on making a small base inside an untouched shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean surrounding the Futuristic District. There were a few things he could do to get rid of the water, but the easiest was to just will it away with his budding Watcher powers.

Though, for just clearing out water, using his Watcher abilities was just slightly taxing. And with the new layer and the eventual small glass dome around the open bit, Grian was completely ready for bed.

He had no bed and no dry clothes.

Even his wings were soaked...

It was shaping up to be a good first day.

There were a few Drowned banging against the glass, growling about being unable to get in and eat the flesh off Grian's bones. He laughed at the three gathered outside the dome, they way their heads twitched made it look like they were rocking out to their own gurgling.

So, he laid down a beat.

"Rock out rock out, we are The Drowned, we are The Drowned, we are The Drowned." He laughed for a few minutes, making light of being in a situation where he is technically trapped in a shipwreck.

Speaking of which, there was usually some loot trapped in some of the chests on these things. When he found them, he was surprised they weren't already stolen from. Sure, you might run out of air while you're searching for chests, but they were full of some useful items, especially when they gave you a treasure map with a location marked not too far away.

A few moments later and a bit more taunting The Drowned outside his glass dome, he finally swam out the dark oak door and killed the lot of them.

He repurposed a few of the waterlogged chests to house his minimal amount of items and started digging.

Grian needed to catch up with the others in terms of materials, of course. In terms of iron, emeralds and diamonds, he was severely lacking with only a few bits of iron to his name.

He dug down, deep beneath the ocean floor he found a ravine housing almost everything he could possibly want at the moment. A stack of lapis, a stack and more of iron, some redstone…

Unwilling to be discouraged, he kept digging, starting strip mines galore with so many useful resources littering the lines.

He almost cried out in glee when he found the first bit of diamonds, four blocks just waiting to be mined. Continuing on, he got a bit more and a bit more until he decided enough was enough. He gathered plenty diamonds to make a full set of tools and have some left over.

Though, it dulled in comparison to what the others have got so far. If someone didn't care about their currency so much at to drown with it and risk losing it forever, he only wondered how much the other Hermits had.

For just a second, he wondered if he was in over his head about coming here. Not that he had a choice or anything.

He walked back through the cold mine, steadily walking to his slightly less cold cave. Watching as the sun rose above the hills and mountains, Grian didn't remember the sun ever setting.

He must have been down in the cave for longer than he thought.

At this point, he just wanted to crash in a woolen bed and sleep until the sun rose next week. Even his wings felt sore, partially from the near lightspeed landing upon his arrival and partially because of the short bursts of flying he performed in the ravine to get the bits of iron and such stuck in the ceiling.

He walked around in circles around his underwater base for a few moments, trying to find a somewhat decent place to take a nap. Eventually he decided on curling up on a block above his smelting furnace, loving the heat radiating from the water-damaged wood. From there, he dozed off, trying to soften his own nerves by preparing lines and general topics of discussion based on what he thinks the Hermits would be willing to talk about. 

Needless to say, it didn't calm his nerves much. 

When he woke, the sun was just beginning to shine again and the heat from the furnace was completely gone. His wings, which covered his entire body -kind of like a blanket- during sleep, unfolded as he stood, trying to stretch as the rest of his limbs were, but only hit the cold glass. 

"I really need to expand this place a bit." Grian said, tapping at the glad as a few tropical fish swam by. Funnily enough, he felt like the one in a fish tank. 

He turned from the glass, walking down into the captain's cabin of the ship. Not like there was anywhere else to go. 

Taking the newly formed diamond pick from his main chest, Grian traveled down his thin tunnel downwards to his ravine with not much less in it besides the incomprehensible amount of coal and obsidian layered over lava.

Grian blocked off the water causing the obsidian and got to work mining the dark purple blocks in the early morning. 

He had just a little bit of catching up to do. 


	3. Nether and Flying

Now, this wasn't his first trip down to the Nether, but if you were just taken from the slight chill of the underground tunnels and thrown into the lava pit most people love to call one of the nine circles of Hell, you might just be a tad bit disoriented the first few seconds arriving. 

Still, Grian pushed through the slight dizziness, obviously going for the most useful and rarest item in the whole of the Nether.

A couple of mushrooms later, he decided to get back on track. With a few ideas for base expansion, he needed to get to a bunch of soul sand before something decided he was better off dead than collecting resources.

If he could nab some soul sand, then he would be able to use the natural oxygen flow to shoot himself upwards in the water very quickly. Combine that with a bit of wall taken out? Boom, the base just got a bit bigger and a bit more open.

It was fairly easy to find, just fifty blocks away from the ominous portal was a small bunch of soul sand. He collected it quickly and borderline bolted back to the portal, but hesitated going back in.

Well… if he was already here…

Quartz was one of his favorite blocks to mess with up in the Aether. One of the most beautiful white blocks and along with the pillars, staircases and slabs, oh he was in love.

It was such a shame it was actually a bit hard to gather and make opposed to the just  _ appearifying  _ it.

He grabbed more than enough, flying up to the rocky ceiling to grab more and more within the radius of his portal. And, Hell, why not grab some glow stone while he's at it?

With all the dust, quartz, netherrack and soul sand safely in his inventory, Grian took no time making himself scarce. It was just a tad bit too hot for his liking.

Warping back into the real world had, and always will, feel like walking into a freezer.

As he stepped onto stone flooring, he realized a small problem almost immediately…

The portal warped him back through  _ someone else's _ portal in the real world.

"Oh no…" Grian walked through the thin hallway that lead to a room full of chests and chickens clucking. He had to fold his wings up tightly in order to walk through the base without hitting anything or knocking any items off shelves.

"What is going on here…?" He climbed on top of a cobblestone wall, finding a boatload of chickens all stuck together in the same small space. Grian didn't know if it was the compassionate part of him or the part of him that loved chickens that suggested it, but he just  _ really  _ wanted to free some of the chickens in that small… crowded area…

"Just look away, Grian." He told himself, walking through a door and into another room full of chests. "Just look away…"

Walking through another door, he found that it led to a small field full of multicolored flowers. Turning, he found a sign above the door that read "The Ren Hole."

"I'm guessing that's Ren's… he's a part of the Hermits, right?" He questioned, looking around for something else to notify him of where he currently was, but there was nothing.

Sighing, he knew he couldn't have gone far from his own base, Nether portals just didn't work like that.

With that in his mind, he started running off the hill in a sprint, puffing out his wings and letting them catch the air. It wasn't a second after that he was drifting through the sky, a powerful wing beat every second or so kept him aloft.

He kept to the right, flying right over someone his communicator caller Cleo. He slowed his speed just a bit to see her run over to a fresh build that had started in the ocean.

It was only his second day and there was already someone building an enormous boat, much more impressive in size than the one he made into a base. He was almost a bit jealous, but he waved at her with a little smile as he flew overhead.

After passing Pirate Island, he found his little shipwreck in a dome and, from looking at it on the outside, really doesn't look nice. Maybe he should add some features… maybe expand it? Make a bottle? That… actually sounds a bit cool, though it will probably never be as cool as the Atlantis that was the Grian Empire back on Evo.

Speaking of, he should probably put Evo somewhere safe soon… Who knows when he'll just get killed and lose all of his stuff forever.

Getting a little more height first, Grian prepared himself to go nose-first into the freezing sea water in order to ge back to the base. Just when he thought he went high enough, his wings took him a little higher, curved in an arch, and let him plummet downwards.

The water is roughly as cold as the deep blue sky, meaning it was freezing as all Hell. As quick as he could, Grian swan right through a door and right back into a place full of air.

His clothes were soaked again, as were his wings, and he wasn't marginally happy about that. However, with his newly acquired soul sand, he would be able to make a quick exit from the base directly back into the ocean, and, if he kept momentum, straight into the air.

Though, with the sun setting and how his body was shaking from too many temperature changes, he decided a sleep through the night would be a better course of action.

He put everything in his inventory away in some random chest that he was close to, keeping a half stack of coal and a full stack of something he could smelt. Grian rushed down the stairs, threw the coal and the full stack into the furnace, ran back up the stairs, and curled in on himself over the furnace again.

This time, he fanned out his wings before he slept, draping them on the few things he owned in the ship and slowly drifting back off into sleep.


	4. Turtles

The soul sand did help immensely when trying to leave the base, especially when he went on little escapades to go and grab more resources for his base.

Though, it wasn't of much use when he was hundreds of blocks away from his home, sugarcane growing along the seashore, thousands of blocks of sand missing from the desert, a handful of turtles trapped in a hut so someone can harvest their scute to make themselves able to breathe underwater for a few more seconds.

Initially he came all the way out here to collect sand, but was sidetracked by the turtles and the prospect of breathing for just a few more seconds underwater.

As soon as he gets enough, he'll let them all go, but for now they stay where he can keep track of them.

He stepped out of the oddly place acacia wood doors and continued walking through a sea of sand and torches in order to place more torches and get more sand.

He did have an enormous glass bottle to make, after all.

He collected sand until the sun went down, and when the moon started to shine, he went I side to smelt the sand, protect the turtles, collect scute, and take a nap every now and then.

However, apparently he hadn't slept in a while according to the screeching phantoms right outside his door. His breathing started to pick up a bit, muttering "no no no no no no" as he shakily stepped over turtles and eggs to reach the bed in the corner of the room.

The first impact of phantom against cobblestone made Grian jump, landing on the bed and just barely missing the wall with his head.

He brought his knees up to his chest as the phantoms continued to scream and fling themselves against the makeshift turtle farm.

Blocking himself away from the phantoms the only way he knew how, Grian's wings formed a barrier between the outside world and himself. He slammed his hands against his ears, telling him his head for the night terrors to go away.

So he sat there on his bed for hours on end, the only thing to save him was the early hours of day, burning the phantoms to a crisp.

At the moment he let himself relax, saying "it's alright, they're dead" to himself on loop, one of the two small turtles who hatched overnight found its way to the base of his bed. Grian let his wings fall behind him, feet setting back onto the floor, narrowly avoiding the baby turtle.

He scooped the little creature into his hands and brought it up to his face. The doublescute pattern on the shell really was beautiful in a way, most of the turtles in the farm had that same pattern. Brushing his fingers against the turtle's shell, he leaned back into the wall, letting out a deep breath. 

The phantoms gave him quite a shock last night, and would continue to if he didn't sleep. However, he couldn't sleep. He had to watch over the baby turtles and get the scute so he could continue working on his base.

He missed the Aether. He never had to deal with phantoms or malevolent creatures in the Aether. He missed sleeping on clouds close to the sun where he could bask in the sunlight and had nothing more important to do than watching over his friends.

Though, this world did have a few benefits, and the sea turtles were adorable. 

He eventually collected all the scute he needed for now, letting a few of the turtles out of the cobblestone hut to make some room for the two babies left inside.

He made a small boat from the leftover wood he used for chests. He stacked all the glass he could into his inventory, placed down the boat just to get a tad bit more sand in, then decided to shove the nearest complacent cow into the boat and start rowing.

It took too long to get to his base in his own humble opinion, but it was probably just the cow making it just a tad bit harder to cross the sea.

One thing for sure was that his arms and back were going to be sore for a while after this.

He dove under the water for a quick moment, leaving the cow in the boat ad he knocked a wall out of the ship. It wasn't hard, the waterlogged wood fell away easily, which mace him weary to touch any other part of the ship. 

He set all of the sand in his inventory into chests he didn't care enough to pay attention to, grabbed the two doors he had left over and put them in the hole in the wall, blocking water from pouring in, somehow. 

Then, he took a few moments to find his sugar cane before finding it in a chest full of dirt and cobblestone which he probably dumped in there without looking… again…

He filled in a small 4x4 area outside the door with the cane, watching as it blocked off the water. For some odd reason, it was still easy to pass through.

Grian took a little jump, flying back to the surface of the water without getting a single drop on himself while placing the cane as he went. As he broke the surface, it took him a second to find the cow in the boat again.

It took a while, but he eventually got the cow down into a cow breeder he had seen a few people make before. And, after getting a second cow down and collecting the sugar cane again, he could finally start breeding them, making leather a renewable resource.

Proud of himself, Grian decided he needed a little bit of relaxing time before he decided to start some other project, namely the large bottle for the ship.

He needed to get more grey dye for that project anyways.

Using the soul sand water elevator to gain momentum, he shot out of the water, veering right. A short flight over the shopping district wouldn't be too bad, right?

Right, the small flight was boring, nothing happened. But, that was what he needed for a moment. A little bit of peace before he ran headfirst into another project that would take many sleepless nights to complete, and even then he might change it up if he isn't too fond of the results.

Still, a lot of empty spaces around the shopping district made him think about making his own shop for the Hermits to shop at. And, since he is a bit of a trickster, maybe there should be no way to exit? Lots of puns everywhere?

Yeah, that sounded nice, maybe something he could do a bit later, maybe after he expands his base just a tiny bit.

Might sell sea pickles…

He smiles and laughs to himself, hundreds of feet above the ground and soaring in the sky. The wind whipped at his face, his sweater felt like it was going to get pulled off, his shoes felt three seconds away from flying off and hitting any poor unsuspecting Hermit in the face.

The sky was always amazing, it felt like his home.


	5. Meeting Xisuma

The two-toned glass bottle didn't look too flattering from up close, but it did look fairly nice when he was a few feet above sea level. It was a long while from being done, there was still so much he wanted to do.

For now, it was good enough, there wasn't a lot he could do with the outside being glass, maybe surround it in coral? That might be a bit too much…

Oh well, he'd think about it later.

As soon as he swam back into his shipwreck in a bottle, he decided a few sea pickles might help light up the area around his base. They were a bit more subtle than sea lanterns and have off just a tad bit more light when he clumped four of them together.

He crawled through the nozzle of the handmade bottle and onto the small patch of grass he is trying to spread across the floor.

Looking through the first four chests inside the bottle proved to have no bottles. He huffed as he closed the last one, growling as he walked through the door of the ship to try the scattered chests in there.

Finding none of his pickles, he growled. "Where have my pickles gone?" As he checked the last chest above the seafloor, he mentioned to himself, "I know I at least have a stack somewhere around here…"

He ran down the stairs, dripping water behind him as he opened a few more chests.

Grian finally found them in the chest closest to the breeding pit he made for his cows. He sighed "there they are…" before taking them into his inventory, stashing them somewhere he could easily reach.

He was hesitant about going back into the water. Wet jeans against his leg just wasn't cutting out for him. So, he circled around the terrarium a few times, brushing his wet bangs out of his face and taking random things in and out of his inventory to put into the already messy chests.

As he stood at the nozzle of the bottle, he was really starting to wish he made his base above the water.

Maybe he'd start on that soon. His base at Evo was previously a small version of Atlantis and he currently had a ship in a bottle at the bottom of the sea. Maybe it was time to try something  _ above  _ water for a change.

He planted almost the entire stack outside the bottle, lighting it up with a natural glow that no other block that gave off light could replicate. It looked beautiful and he couldn't help but gush over the natural look of the whole thing.

The only thing that was missing was something that would make him able to breathe underwater for long periods of time. He was getting just slightly sick and tired of going back up for air every minute or so.

The scute helmet did help a bit, but he sometimes forgot to put it on, and when he did, he didn't feel like it made that much of a difference to the amount of time he spent under the water.

In that case, he would need to build himself a conduit.

And well, as he thought about it… he  _ could  _ just use the minimal amount of abilities the Watchers gave him to make one  _ happen _ , just so he didn't have to go through the grueling process to make one.

That would be cheating, he informed himself. He couldn't just go around appearify-ing things left and right, the other Hermits would catch on sooner or later and try to talk to him about it.

Speaking of the other Hermits, at least  _ one  _ of them have to have an idea where he could find the things to make a conduit, he even had a few design ideas already for it once he got all the required materials.

Pulling out the communicator for this world out of his pocket, he was surprised to find it wasn't waterlogged or damaged in the slightest. On the small keypad, he wrote: "Anyone know where a monument is? Building a conduit, need dark prismarine."

He waited a few seconds, kicking around the dirt in the bottom of the bottle.

Xisuma responded with an invite and coordinates, and Grian happily jumped onto his Nether portal in order to get to Xisuma's place as quick as he could.

As he stepped through the portal a second time, he appeared in Xisuma's base. It was only up one quick water elevator and through a birch door that led outside when he saw Xisuma waiting for him at the top, leaning on a minutely damaged shield.

"Fancy seeing you here." The taller Hermit said through his helmet's speaker.

"You as well, neighbor." Grian smiled, ruffling his feathers to shake the water out of them.

Xisuma held out his hand and Grian, the social disaster that he was, stared at the hand for a few seconds before realizing  _ he should probably shake it _ .

"Welcome to Hermitcraft, Grian."

"Its nice to be here."

Xisuma smiled, taking his weight off of his shield and taking a step back. 

"So, I heard you needed some dark prismarine?"

Grian nodded, slowly following after Xisuma once the taller of the two started walking.

"Well, lucky for you, I happened to have found a double water monument."

He looked at Xisuma for a second. Xisuma only smirked.

"How in the world did you find a naturally made monument on top of another monument? Isn't that supposed to be prevented?"

"It probably should be," Xisuma responded, leading them to the docs where two boats were placed in the water. "But they aren't on top of eachother, they're  _ merged. _ "

With one foot in the small boat, he gaped at the other. He only started paying attention to what he was in the middle of doing when he was halfway down in the splits.

The Watchers were the ones who were supposed to prevent accidental merging of any structures in newly generated worlds. They would move around all the structures available in the world the second is created. No two structures are supposed to be relatively close to one another, nevermind  _ merged. _

He absolutely had to see this.


	6. Tag and AFK

The glowing eyes of the conduit lit up the seafloor as Grian made a few finishing touches on the design. It wasn't very complex, it just looked like Squidward's house.

Now though, as he's drifting through the water as long as he likes, he's coming up with ideas that only someone like him could come up with.

Not as a Watcher, no. But as the prankster gremlin he is.

He was bored and he wanted to prank Mumbo, his neighbor. So why not do it while he has a few other responsibilities he should probably take care of first?

Using his wings as a boost through the water, Grian swam through the bottle and landed face-first into the grass he lined the bottom of the bottle with.

Getting up oh his feet as quickly as he could, he bolted through the ship doors and down the stairs, throwing everything he wouldn't need into random chests as he passed them by.

He got to the bottom of his chicken farm, collecting the hundreds of eggs he has stored in there and nabbed a few buckets he had laying around, just in case.

Though, before he left the basement of the ship, something caught his eye that would be  _ perfect  _ for the prank he was about to pull off. Grian grabbed the chicken head, shoved it on, and promptly left the base.

He didn't fly over to Mumbo's, instead he used one of his hundreds of boats he had lying around and paddled his way over.

As he took the first step onto Mumbo's island, he wasn't sure if he was on the island, but with a quick peek down the  _ tallest ladder in exist _ ence, he saw the other milling about, working on a farm or something.

Before he could be noticed, he quietly climbed back up the ladder and started throwing the eggs he had all over the grassy island.

It was fun. It was  _ really _ fun just throwing eggs all over a person who you're supposed to try and befriend's base.

From the eggs came little chickens and he almost gushed about how cute they are until he realized there were now  _ hundreds  _ of little chickens roaming around and Mumbo has yet to come and check what was making all the noise. Granted, he was a ways away underground, he probably couldn't hear the noise from down there even if he wanted to, which he probably didn't want to.

So, as he took another trip down the ladder, he threw the eggs and didn't stop throwing eggs until he reached the bottom of the ladder, where he continued to throw eggs right at Mumbo's confused face.

The Hermit got in a "Who-?" before he was hit in the head with another egg, which held a baby chicken inside.

Grian giggled as he watched Mumbo fumble with the chick, trying to catch it as it drifted harmlessly to the ground.

As he threw the last egg in his inventory at a dropper in the middle of the room, he scampered up the ladder once more and was almost to the top by the time Mumbo started climbing. 

He took off as he reached the top, settling down right next to Mumbo's cow farm, which looked extremely old school compared to what he saw in the Hermit's base underground. He had a few seconds before Mumbo would catch up with him, so he milked the lovely cows, placed the full buckets down on the ground, and ran away from Mumbo's reaching arm.

Grian almost took a bit too long, the Hermit was almost able to grab onto his sweater before he took off from the ground again. 

"Who in the world are you?!" Mumbo yelled up at him.

Grian took off the chicken head before he turned to look down at Mumbo.

"It wasn't me!" He yelled, "It was the man in the chicken costume!"

He could hear the other yell "What in the blazes does that even mean?!" as he flew back above his base and diving back into the water.

Well, there goes another boat, but at least he's actually getting rid of the things now.

Now that he's back in his base and absolutely crawling on the grass with laughter, he finds it in his mind that he isn't truly done yet. As everyone in this world will find, there is no extent of his need for pranking and games.

Speaking of games, why not start one? A game that could go all around the world and involve every Hermit around? Why not start one of his favorite games that is the simplest to understand and carry on?

Why not start a game of tag?

He knows he has one somewhere, the name tag he got while exploring a while ago had to be around here somewhere…

Lo and behold, it was in a chest with more spoils from exploring.

He really does need to start an organization system before this gets out of control. Oh well, he'll get to that later.

Going up to the anvil, he renamed the name tag  _ Tag, you're it! _ and kept it safe in his inventory. Thinking ahead, he wrote down some simple rules in a book. Can't be too careful, y'know?

The communicator for this world buzzed in his pocket. Fishing it out and turning on the screen, he found Doc sending out a message, a request for  _ something _ , he doesn't really care enough to check. There's a few messages from him, Mumbo and Jevin that went out before he just put the communicator on silent and shoved it back into his pocket.

It was a good thing he knew who exactly he wanted to tag first, and their name rhymed with Molebo Gumbo.

Yeah, why not prank Mumbo two times in one afternoon? He found that is was quite funny pranking a guy in a suit and moustache.

Taking his own secret entrance over to Mumbo's, which he found while mining a few days ago, he got over to the Hermit's base in record time.

Once down in the underground base, he tried to sneak around, hiding behind a corner and watching Mumbo just… stand there…

He's just  _ standing  _ there…

Oh no, he's afk.

When did he go afk? Wasn't he  _ just _ texting in the chat?

Turning his back to the afk Hermit, he pulled out his communicator and ran through the recent messages. 

He went afk only a few minutes ago in order to keep his farms going while his brain was asleep. Going closer to his face, you could see the funny dopey look on his face. Mumbo's eyes were dropped and his mouth was hanging open a little, drool ran down the front of his shirt.

Well, he did plan for this predicament while writing the rule book. No tagging afk people, written in the book with his own handwriting.

He groaned and fell back onto the rocky floor, his wings somewhat trying to cushion the landing.  _ Now  _ who was he supposed to tag? Scar does live on an island nearby, but he said only yesterday he was going to go on an expedition to grab  _ something _ , so he's out.

Who else is there?

Checking the com in his hand again, he almost lit up in joy.

Doc was coming over to Mumbo's to take a few things that Mumbo had agreed to earlier.

Oh boy, he was gonna tag Doc.

So he waited and waited and waited. He changed his hiding place to a small indent near the ladder and waited some more.

He groaned and checked the com again and…

<Doc> where is your base, mumbo? I cant find it

<Doc> nvm I think I found it

<Doc> how do you get in???

<Jevin> there is a ladder to mumbos base, doc

<Doc> where??

<Doc> can someone grab my stuff?

<Doc> I drowned

Grian snapped the communicator back into his pocket and flew up, not bothering with the ladder when there was no one around.

There, a little ways above his own base, was a bunch of floating items.

<Grian> I see them

<Grian> I'll put them in a chest on mumbo's island for you

<Doc> thanks grian

<Doc> im on my way back over

He flew over above his base, skimming the water with his hands as he collected every bit of Doc's belongings that were floating there. He put them all in a chest right next to the hole in the ground that leads to Mumbo's underground bunker and even put a few helpful signs that indicated  _ this is where Mumbo's base is, don't fall on your way down _ .

Grian fell back down, his wings catching him in the air before he splattered on Mumbo's floor. Speaking of, the chickens that have been down here have already started to lay more eggs, which he immediately threw around and made more chickens, who would eventually lay more eggs.

It would never stop.

Walking closer to Mumbo, he poked him in the side of the face a few times… he was genuinely afk…

Without any thinking, he sang a little song with an afk Mumbo as his audience. 

"Mumbo Jumbo you are afk…"

"I'm gonna take that moustache away!"

"Mumbo, Mumbo, Mumbo afk!"

"I'm gonna take that moustache away!!!"

He laughed to himself. Why did he  _ say  _ that? How would he even take away someone's moustache? Well, he could shave it off, but that felt like cheating…

The echoing sound of a chest opening rang throughout the bunker. Doc has returned.

Grian himself got back into position he was in before, the tag in one hand and the rule book in the other. He had to stop himself from snickering as Doc finally took a few steps into the base, taking a few steps forward in order to get to the chests.

Running from his spot, Grian slapped Doc on the shoulder, threw both the book and the tag in his face when he turned around, and flew back up the ladder, laughing like a gremlin the whole way up.

"OH!" He heard Doc yell from the bottom, shouting up the ladder at him. "THE GAME HAS JUST OFFICIALLY BEGUN, GRIAN!"

Grian laughed the whole way back to his base, unaware of the eventual chaos he would bring in this world.


	7. Reminisce

He gazed over the world he once was apart of, his friends that he would never be able to talk to again, but love so dearly that he couldn't live to see them go. Every day he watches them expand, develop, create new things that he has never seen before.

He longs to return, to be apart of the world of Evolutionists again. His heart yearns to go back, but his head knows there is no possible way to return even if he wanted to. He has new responsibilities at his new world, things he needs to do, projects to complete, games to create, friends to make.

Going back to Evo would be too much of a strain on his mind, anyhow. Everyone has developed as a person and in their own building styles since he's been gone, things that would be completely foreign to him if he were to return.

And, in all honesty, he's not sure they would care much for his return.

Sure, he was previously the admin, leader of the Grian Empire and the judge, but they have already gotten over him. And, yeah, maybe they would smile and laugh and cry with joy if he were to return, but they hardly think of him anymore, hardly talk of him.

It doesn't seem like they care much that he's gone.

He let the planet fall from his hands, looking on as it fell back into open air, only a few inches above his head. It spun in space, and he watched it float.

Feathered wings sprawled from his back, curling forward to block out the light shining from the glass. For a long while, he stood there, Watching the people he once knew like family go along with their lives.

Once, while he was still a little fledgling in the aether, had just earned his wings and his ability to soar into the sky, he had overheard a few of the higher ups talking about his world. Overheard how the world of Evolutionists was the only world in thousands of years that they had to be so hands-on with.

He overheard how easy it was for them to pull him away from his friends, how it had been a test from the very beginning.

He remembered being so infuriated with everyone, learning that every single act of disobedience to the Watchers while he was still on the planet just made him an easier target to be pulled away from everyone else. They had anticipated him stealing from the first temple, they had predicted he would take the clay instead of burning it.

They had known him too well, and he hated it.

He folded his wings back, stepping away from his friends.

It was about time he made some new friends here in the world of Hermits. He had a blast yesterday starring a game with Doc and getting in his first prank on Mumbo.

And he had the most perfect idea of who was going to be his first friend here…

He did already have a secret entrance to their base.


	8. Beginnings of an Alliance and Pranks

Grian's first idea was to pull another prank on Mumbo, but that wouldn't have gone over as well as it would have on his friends from Evo.

The second, more plausible, idea he had was to create an alliance with Mumbo. With his own amazing building skills and Mumbo's significantly more impressive knowledge on redstone, they would be the most perfect team in the world!

The only thing was, Grian had a certain flare for the dramatics. He didn't want to just go up to Mumbo and say something along the lines of "Yo, let's join forces." That's dumb and sounds stupid, and isn't impressive in the slightest.

So, instead of being simple, he decided a whole conference room to pitch the idea was in store.

He took the shorter of the two ways to Mumbo's base, flying out of his shipwrecked bottle and to the island with a treehouse. To be honest, he's never been up there and he kinda never wants to. It looks top heavy, like it would fall over if he tried to land on the top.

He paced around the island a bit, planning anything he could say if Mumbo was down in his own base, which was highly extremely likely…

After a few seconds of brainstorming with no results, he just decides to hop down the newly made water elevator.

An acacia door sat closed at the bottom, proving some difficulty getting out of the elevator, which caused him to completely miss the redstone contraption and the giant cobblestone block right above his face. The only thing he saw was an ever present AFK Mumbo before a slime block was pushed through his head.

He took a few steps forward, trying to catch his breath again as he turned to look at the block that was quite rudely shoved onto his face.

The block of slime had glued itself to the block of cobblestone, dragging it along as it retracted via piston. Did he set off a trap?

"I dont think I was supposed to be in here…" He told himself. "Maybe it's some anti-Grian technology going on?"

Oh well, whatever happened had happened and he was still alive and well in the Hermit's base, accompanied only by an AFK Mumbo and a few active farms.

He circled around what appeared to be a few furnaces linked to chests by hoppers. The top one was empty, the next one down had a stack and a half of coal blocks, and the bottom one had almost filled the chest with glass.

It was, apparently, a very effective super smelter of sorts.

"Oh my god I've been doing this manually! Why dont I do this!" He gestured to the smelter, talking to the very AFK Mumbo. "Why don't I make these machines?!"

Grian huffed, but took a moment to look around. There was definitely a space in the corner where he could create a meeting room, or he could investigate the long hallway that stretched past Mumbo's mob farm…

Yeah, not gonna happen today.

Turning himself around and matching right back up to the water elevator, Grian contemplated the small machine by the door before decidedly not caring about it anymore and walking straight into the water.

As he stepped in, it took a second for the switch at the bottom to activate, replacing the magma block that pulled water down for souls sand that pushed water upwards. He floated for a second before the bubbles coming from the sand pushed him up, flinging him up into the air.

He flew all the way back to his base, going straight into his chests in order to grab some materials for what he was going to do. All he needed to do was grab a few blocks of redstone, maybe a bit of obsidian and-

_ What was that…? _

Grian looked a bit closer in his inventory, glaring at the single, lonely tag that sat in there.

"How do I have the tag?!" Grian looked around for a second for another player but only found-  _ what is that?!? _

Okay Grian, focus on one thing at a time. First thing's first,  _ how does he have the tag now?!?  _ He just sent it off to Doc not even a day ago and it's already back in his inventory. Since it's against the rules to tag someone while they're AFK, he couldn't have gotten it any time before the past five hours.

The problem is, he hasn't seen anyone in that time. He's just been working on replacing the unstained glass of his bottle and collecting some cobblestone and other materials for his next project. The only time he's left his base in the past five hours was to-

Mumbo's slime block machine…

Is that what it did? Was the purpose of the little trap in the bunker's entrance meant to tag someone? Did that mean Mumbo knew he was going to go down into his base and he set up the tag machine in order to be a retaliation for the chicken prank? Or was it the little tune he sang?

He'll interrogate Mumbo about it later, maybe after he's made the small meeting room to suggest an alliance. For now, he really wants to scope out whatever had just popped up beside his conduit.

Taking a close look, it looked to be… Spongebob Squarepants' house, a sponge-owned pineapple under the sea.

There was a little waterproof note next to the door, neighborly greetings from Scar and all.

Surprisingly, there was an inside, unlike his conduit build one small, sea-themed build over. Upon entry, there was a small replica of the famous snail, Gary, and the chair the sponge would sit in. He walked up the narrow staircase and found the abomination of what is supposed to be Mr. Squarepants himself.

It was definitely something he would continue to see in his nightmares every night.

Well, now he had a few things he needed to do, and he would love for the record to show that he  _ didn't  _ run out of the pineapple house as fast as he could, as he could have gone much faster if he wasn't tripping over his feet on his way out the front door.


	9. Building a meeting

Grian pulled out the communicator, typing with one hand as the other was holding the name tag named Tag. He was currently standing on the other side of Mumbo's mob farm, watching him through the window and iron bars as he stood in one corner, afk.

<Grian> mumbo

<Grian> MUMBOOO

He could hear the ringtone Mumbo set for messages drift through the glass. The frequently afk Mumbo jolted awake at the tone, fumbling to grab the device as it was screeching at him.

<Mumbo> What? Haha!

<Grian> I'm right here

Ensue Mumbo looking around his entire base wildly for a few moments. Honestly, he looked like a chicken running around rampant with its head chopped off. It made it a little difficult to discern him from the other chickens who were, in fact, running rampant in Mumbo's base.

Mumbo looked above the mob farm for a second, and Grian has to give him a hint.

<Grian> no back down

Finally, the Hermit met his eyes across the chasm that was the mob farm. Mumbo jumped with his eyes wide open, almost falling right on top of the automatic smelter he made.

Griam pushed the tag against the window, trying his best to make the most pissed of expression he could manage. And, honestly, the best expression he could come up with came off as mildly annoyed to anyone else.

<Grian> are you responsible for this

<Mumbo> Hello!

The utter spoon of a man smiled and waved for a second before he caught sight of what Grian was holding. In a flash, Mumbo was falling to the floor again, laughing like a crazed maniac.

<Mumbo> Hahahahahahha]

Apparently he had fished out his com device and had tried to type out his laughing like Grian couldn't see him rolling around the floor.

<Grian> WAS THIS YOU

<Mumbo> IT GOT YOU!

SO THAT MACHINE WAS MADE TO TAG HIM!

<Grian> NOOOO

<Mumbo> REDSTONE TAG!!!!!

Grian wasn't a hundred percent sure it was a legal move, but he didn't really state anything about redstone while writing in the rule book. So, valid move, he supposes.

<Grian> you knew it would get me didn't you

<Mumbo> TAG, YOU'RE IT!!!

Rolling his eyes, he gave a short reply of, "...thanks" before destroying the window he made and patching it up with a bit of stone.

The first thing he wanted to get done was creating a small room as a sort of lobby waiting area before the actual meeting room. He could even hire someone to sit there as a receptionist and lead Mumbo down to the office portion.

Nah, that would take a while. No one would want to stand there while he talks. He’ll just be the receptionist himself. It'll be much easier that way.

Grian cleared out a rather large area with a small staircase in order to get back to his handmade lobby. He exchanged any dirt, diorite or andesite with stone to make the area look as clean as possible. Then, with his small amount of redstone capabilities, he managed to make a wall that could be revealed with a flick of a lever.

It's a shame he couldn't test it. This door would hopefully only be a one use thing.

With a bit of coal and redstone blocks, he managed to make a small logo that appeared to be a cartoonish version of his black eyes and a but more red version of Mumbo's mustache.

Now, all he had to do was create a name for their group. He knew about a few of the other groupings. The nHo, the Convex, and a few others that only appeared for a week then broke.

Grian set the gravel in place, torches at the bottom of a two foot deep pit to break the moment it dropped. He wandered over to the spruce chairs he set up, rested his head on his hand, and started to brainstorm.

He needed a name that would strike fear into anyone who opposed the grouping of him and Mumbo. He had to create a name that would make them respected on the server.

It needed to be cool.

Too bad the only thing his mind could think of was 'BuildStone'.

Okay, he'll just keep that as a placeholder name for now. It'll change the moment he comes up with a better name.

With a bit more torches for lighting, he decided he could call the room done.

Checking in on Mumbo and making sure he wasn't AFK again, Grian smirked. He needs to change into something a little more… professional for this little meeting of his.

His wings spread out from behind him as he got into a position that made it seem like he was getting ready to sprint down a field. And he did, he ran the first few steps before his wings finally caught and pushed his entire body from the ground.

Navigating through the small, thin stone walls was a bit difficult going over 120mph. Especially when the trail opened up into a ravine and he had to to a five-point turn before he crashed into the walls.

In under a minute, he made it back to his shipwreck. However, he did have a bit of difficulty stopping, which landed him doubled over on a chest full of random cave findings with all the air in his lungs immediately gone.

Once he was finally able to breathe again, he rid himself of his diamond armor and the hundreds of other blocks and placed them all in a random chest. As he normally does.

In a separate room of the ship, where he believes used to be the captain's quarters, was his relatively warm bed, large and full closet, and a few chests filled with items he once believed to be useful. That was before he managed to create the conduit, so it was mostly filled with anything he could find at that point.

Walking over to the closet and opening it, a few things fell straight to the ground before he could catch them. His ringleader jacket was at the bottom, piled on top of it were one of his button down shirts with a few buttons at the top missing, his favorite red and white holiday sweater, his only black long sleeve shirt, and…

His red suit jacket! Exactly what he needs!

Unfortunately, the last time he wore the suit was when he was trying to get back on good terms with the Property Police after blowing up their base…

Ah, old times where he always blew up everything all the time.

That said, there wasn't any hole for his wings to go through. Now he had the option of hosting another small scissor party and some more holes in his shirts and jackets, or just keep his wings tucked underneath the jacket, which has proved to be difficult in the past.

Or he could just wear one of his button downs that had already been cut through in the back and wear the jacket around his waist….

Sounds cool.

As he changed, he had to angle his wings through the  _ just a bit too small _ holes in the back. It took a little bit of time and too much effort, but he got the shirt on, buttoned it up, tied the jacket around his waist, and got on the nice red pants.

He had both hands on each handle of the door, ready to close the closet doors before he reached in once more into his bucket of bowties and pulled out a small matching red bowtie. Fortunately, it was one that didn't need to be tied, just the bow on a string of elastic and a clip in the back.

Grian closed the closet and marched back down the stairs. This time, he was preparing a speech for Mumbo, thinking up some phrases so he wouldn't appear as a bumbling fool while he was trying to make a good impression.

He went back to the spot where he made a window earlier that day and quickly put in a few new panes to view Mumbo through. He could only see a portion of the Redstone Expert, so he wasn't a hundred percent sure if he was still online or gazing through one of his furnaces, so he started typing on his com.

<Grian> mumbo?

<Grian> you there?

He could see Mumbo type out the message before receiving the reply of "yeah". The entire situation now had him hyped, he could practically  _ hear _ his feathers shaking.

<Grian> can I come hop on in?

<Mumbo> Okay!


	10. Bucket list and Rockets

The meeting the night before went fairly well, and he was so proud to admit to anyone that the new name of 'Architects' came to him like a fever dream while he was asleep. He did, in fact, text Mumbo the second it was thought up of, which was precisely 4:23 in the morning.

Mumbo didn't reply, but that was probably because he was asleep… or AFK.

Anywho, as he got dressed, he started thinking of what he wanted to do in this world before he eventually had to leave. He remembers believing that he would never make friends with these Hermits so he doesn't grow attached. However, his little grouping with Mumbo and the successfully created group between the two had him thinking…

Would forming friendships with the Hermits be too bad? After all, once he opens up the world for the rest of the Watchers, wouldn't he be able to come back any time he wished?

No, they wouldn't let him do that. It's the same as Evo, he won't be able to go back once he leaves, The Watchers simply won't allow it. They'll say he needs more training or studies or time or skill before he could return. It's the same as Evo…?

It's not the same as Evo.

This world is different.

As he walked into the main room of the ship, his mind went back on track. What he wanted to do before he left, so… a bucket list? People still make those, right?

After thinking for a long while, writing, crossing out, and rewriting on signs, Grian was finally able to come up with something that almost kinda looked to be an actual bucket list.

1)Go see every Hermit at least once

2)Make a shop (and a profit!!)

3)Make a proper redstone storage system

4)Take Mumbo's mustache away

5)Create a base in every area

A good start for a bucket list, a bit unattainable at the moment, but it might change later. What he has down on these signs is just a base, so to say.

And now, staring at the fifth item on his list. He capped the marker he had been using. He needs to start working on his own base that was an actual base, not just a glass bottle around a sunken ship he had found.

Going around the base a few times, collecting stacks of items from most of the chests he could find and flying around to save some daylight he was wasting with his non-existent organization system.

Eventually, he felt like he had nabbed enough materials to at least  _ start  _ the base.

He swam from the nozzle of the bottle, not straying too far from the powers of his conduit as he built a gravel pillar from the bottom of the seafloor to the top of the water's surface.

Starting only a block above the surface of the water, Grian started a small cobblestone flooring, also taking a bit of time to throw down a few of the shulker boxes he had bought a few days ago onto the ground where he could access them.

He started one side of his build, going dozens of blocks out before continuing the shape in a jagged form.

Of course, as a testament to how little resources he actually has, he wasn't able to finish his enormous build before he ran out of cobblestone. He ran back over the the shulker box he had from of materials to scavenge through them. One was almost empty, one was full of bricks he wasn't really planning on using anytime soon, and the other two were full of tools, white concrete powder and cyan terracotta.

At this point, he must have already used 20-something stacks of cobblestone border to make the platform.

Truth be told, it is going to be absolutely enormous, its going to be a base that anyone can see from hundreds of miles away. So, running out of his base block this quickly must be a testament to how much is actually going into this build.

Lifting himself off the floor, Grian floats his way to the top of a pillar he made to overview his project. He landed in a gargoyle-esque pose and started making visual measurements of the base.

His was almost thinking of cutting the base down on size, but then it wouldn't be his first mega build in this world, now would it? He'll just have to do more mining and resource gathering in his spare time.

In all honesty, he Grian wasn't sure how big he even wanted to make the base. When he started laying down the cobblestone, he was just going out in a square shape until he ran out.

There where a few close islands he needed to look out for. One of them he believed was close to the mainland, but the other, he was pretty sure it was owned by Mumbo. Maybe he could persuade Mumbo to give the island to him? He was just a bit of a spoon, convincing him to give it up when it wasn't necessarily close to his base would be fairly easy.

For now, until he gathers more resources, he has a perfectly fine base below sea level.

Although Mumbo was a spoon of the highest order during their meeting, he did say a few interesting things. One of them being the existence of Elytra.

From what he knows, Elytra are almost like his own wings, though they all look different in size, shape and style. The Hermits are able to use them to his surprise. All they really have to do is strap them on with a few bindings, run like the wind off a cliff, and let off a rocket. Then, the user will glide slowly to the ground until they launch another rocket and shoot back up into the clouds.

The Elytra might as well be useless to him, unless come a point in time his wings aren't able to move anymore, but the rockets do sound intriguing. Are you able to take off just by launching a poorly made firework?

Also, he has the tag againz and he would prefer for it to not come back into contact him for a while, so why not ship it off to the other side of the world? Or, at least a different section of the world. And to do that, so he doesn't utterly kill his wings, he needs to get his hands on some fireworks.

With his small amount of diamonds and an equally small amount of intel, he decided to check  _ Tek To The Skies _ , a rocket store, he's heard.

He landed on the grass in front of the store on a small hill.

"Yep, definitely a rockets store."

He stepped in, curious about the lack of a front door. The inside was small, but utterly loaded with chests filled to the brim with rockets. Just a little bit reluctant to spend his diamonds, when he remembered the reason for his purchase, he bought an extra few stacks.

With the payment in and his pockets a slight bit heavier, he wanted to see what he has heard of the rockets were true.

Grian stood himself in an open plot of land, careful of any trees in his surrounding area. The rockets seemed simple to use, just pull the string at the bottom as quick as you can and the resulting friction will  _ propel you in the air. _

He tried his best to ready himself, fanning out his wings as one hand closed on the sting. He could feel his nerves riling as he jumped in the air, pulling out the string a second before it could be too late, and he was pulled into the sky, leaving behind a trail of white smoke in his wake.

The rockets were  _ thrilling. _ Grian felt like he left his heart on the ground as the force of the rocket brought him into the sky.

The second the force went out, he pulled another string, and another, and another. Looping spirals around the shopping district and the sea, he laughed and laughed and used up an entire stack before the rush ran out.

He slowed to a stop on top of the sea, toes just barely grazing the waves as his wings kept him on the same y-coordinate. He loved using the rockets, but maybe he should not use up every single one he has in five seconds. It would be better to keep a few on hand but leave the rest in a chest for now.

Letting his wings rest for a moment, he fired off  _ just a few  _ more rockets until he was back at his giant cobblestone almost-square.

The oncoming sunset frightened Grian just the tiniest bit, just because of the lack of lighting on the square and his majorly unprotected bed.

He'll be fine, he told himself, nothing will be exploded by the time I wake up!

And in the morning after, he would be eating those words as himself and a few shulker boxes were blown off the side of the cobble square.


	11. Goodbye, tag

He growled as his helmet blew off of his head and shattered on the cobblestone. The diamond leggings he had last night have already shattered, and now his helmet??

The sun was seconds from rising again, so he took the time to kill the mobs that had decided to climb on top of his base.

It did take a while, the leftover monsters started burning under the first rays of the sun. A few of the smarter ones jumped into the ocean to avoid dying again, sinking to the bottom and becoming harmless.

Well, he looked dumb in diamond boots. He kicked them off and left them right next to the enderchest.

Losing most of his armor in one night wasn’t something he would want to happen ever again. With his wings, he isn’t able to wear a chestplate, so he is already protective of what he can wear.

He started to empty his inventory in one of his shulker boxes when he caught sight of the Tag tag. Grian was still a bit peeved with the fact that Mumbo was able to get him with the simplest redstone contraption he had ever seen! It as just a dropper on a pressure plate, the slime was just to see if the trap has been activated or not.

At least he had an idea of how to continue the game now. His few leftover rockets could help jettison himself over to the other side of the world, or to whichever Hermit was on the other side of the shopping district.

Grian climbed his pillar, facing Mumbo’s base to grab the rule book he forgot when he got tagged. When he launched himself into the air from his water elevator, he directed himself to Scar’s island. He was close, yes, but it was just to check to see if he was up or not.

And the adventurer was… technically…

Grian looped around the base a few times, Immediately diving for Scar once he saw him. Unfortunately, as he landed on the grass next to him, he found that the adventurer was, in fact, AFK.

“What is it with everyone in this world being AFK all the time?” He asked, not really expecting an answer.

Well, according to his own rules, he wasn't allowed to tag anyone who was AFK, which might be his downfall. With how much everyone was AFK all the time, he might start having trouble sticking to the rules of tag.

Alas, with that out of the window, Grian took off with one of his rockets, soaring through the clouds and right over the Shopping District.

He flew out for a long while, getting in a little bit of time to relax. Only soaring through the air, launched through clouds by the rockets as he surveyed the ground for any active Hermits. It was very pleasant, the morning sun shone bold and bright as the misty clouds cooled down any heat from the rays.

There was a beacon visible in the distance and, checking his coordinates, this is further than he has ever traveled before now.

There, some movement and a name, 

Cub.

Switching the items in his hands around, he held onto the name tag and the rule book, swooping downwards into what looked like a turtle farm.

Cub saw him coming, must have. The second Grian went to tag the man, he was teleported away with an ender pearl. Grian saw the direction he teleported, lifted himself back into the air, and tried to follow in the same direction.

Cub was gone within seconds. It was odd, unless there was some sort of underground bunker he had, there shouldn't have been a way to lose Cub…

He huffed, took another quick look around and flew back into the clouds to sulk for a few moments. So far, that's two out of two attempts failed with the tag still resting in his inventory.

As he went on, he found an ice biome, which was, unfortunately, extremely cold. His weak little sweater and dark grey jeans don't hold up in cold weather.

He found Stress, who was significantly more acclimated to the weather than him, walking down from the base of what almost looked like the beginnings of a castle.

The first time he swooped in to tag her, he overshot. One of his wings hit a pillar of rock and he dove into the ocean to recover. Although, diving in the cold, cold water wasn't his best idea.

By the time he got out, back onto the ice and back into the air, Stress was already AFK, which made him want to flip in lid, preferably in a desert, where its  _ warm. _

Honestly, he dont know how Stress can manage living in the coldest biome. It feels like a freezing Hell there.

Brushing off a few icicles from his wings, Grian wasn't ready to stop his search for someone to tag. He wanted to get the ridiculous tag out of his inventory  _ now. And the next person he sees better not be AFK. _

Just as he was about to leave the biome, Stress' neighbor caught his eye.

Iskall.

He dove down, no plan or anything running through his head but "I'm going to get him, I'm going to get him, 

I'm going to get him,".

He landed a bit too far in front of his target, losing his initial sense of surprise. Iskall tried to run in the opposing direction, but with a rocket boost, Grian was able to hit him on the shoulder.

"Hah! Tag, you're it, Iskall!" He laughed, floating down to the main layer of ice, throwing down the book and the tag up at Iskall.

"Really?!" Iskall jumped down, reluctantly grabbing both the book and the tag.

"Oh geeze," Grian had a but of trouble trying to stop his laughing. "Do you know how difficult it is trying to tag someone while flying?!"

“I can’t imagine. I would only be able to use the Elytra if anything, you have yourself some real wings, must be easier to control and navigate.” Iskall joked, nodding to the iced over wings that were almost frozen in place.

“Oh my, they’re frozen over again!” Grian shook out the wings. Though they were a bit stiff, it was extremely easy to break the tiny icicles off. Thousands of the frozen bits of water fell to the ground, colliding with the bigger sheet of ice and shattering, some falling onto his shoes.

“How does everyone have an Elytra? It’s as if everyone had defeated an Ender Dragon twelve times over on their first day. We’re only in the second week of this world!” Iskall pondered aloud, asking as if Grian had watched everyone’s every single move. He would have if the world wasn’t closed off to The Watchers. It had just occurred to him, he hadn’t used most of his new abilities in this world yet.

He’ll have to try those out later. It’ll prove well to experiment in this world that is mostly closed off to The Watchers.

“I think the blue blob… slime? Jello? The blue jello man has some?”

“Jevin, I think I heard of him raiding the End a couple of days ago.”

Grian snickered, shuffled through his inventory for a second before getting ahold on his rockets.

“Well, good luck tagging someone else! Peace out!” Without waiting for a response, which was a few selective words expressing Iskall’s distaste for the game, he launched himself into the air as fast as he could.

He made it back to his base, the giant floating cobblestone square, in record speed. Which, of course, is because he had never come back from Iskall’s base before, so it’s the only record available.

The first thing he did was connect a water elevator to a short tunnel to his old base, just so he wouldn’t have to take a dive into the water or fly over to Mumbo’s strip mine every time he needed another stack of cobblestone. It was efficient, it was quick, it’s temperature was able to be regulated.

From there, he went back to his bucket list board. There was something he had wanted to put on there that he didn’t know he wanted to do until he reminded himself that he and the other Hermits were able to fly.

6)Fight and kill a phantom in midair

It was just something that seemed fun. Killing the things that freak him out so badly while soaring through the sky? It sounded so fun… a blast… amazing…

Oh he wasn’t going to like fulfilling that one, but he’ll have to get over his fear of the creatures sooner or later.


	12. Flying, Nose diving, and Crying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Broken Bones

Grian almost fell out of the sky at his first view of Mumbo's circular base. He would have never known the Hermit was capable of making something this extravagant in the small amount of time he has been away.

Though, viewing his teammate's base does give him a few ideas for how his base is going to look in the future.

That means, he's still got to match the block palate Xisuma set up for each district and look epic  _ and  _ maybe connect to Mumbo's base in some way? Maybe a mailing system since the other was AFK so often.

Speaking of, there he is now! He could see the Hermit shuffling through a few chests in what looked to be a shaved tree house. Well, since he wasn't really doing anything too special right now, why not go say hi?

He used a few of the rockets he bought from Tango's shop to help assist his wings in launching himself into the air. 

As Grian pulled the string on the last rocket, he turned sharply, facing the treehouse until he was floating above it.

With a loud and screechy "HI MUMBOOOO!", Grian went into a nose dive.

His plan here was to use his rocket to pull him out of the nose dive at the last second, face himself home, and fly back as fast as he could before Mumbo could decide to give chase or not.

As he fell closer and closer to the ground, wind tugging at this clothes and making his eyes water, he pulled out another rocket.

But he didnt.

Because he used the last few to launch himself in the air…

Whoops.

Barely twenty feet away from the wooden platform of Mumbo's tree house, he tried to pull his head back, tried to shift his wings.

At least it didn't hurt much when he collided with the tree house, a loud, and multiple, cracking noises following slightly after the impact. Maybe he didnt fall from that high, maybe his wings caught the air just enough to prevent irreplaceable damage, or maybe that was just the adrenaline, who knows.

He sat there for a few moments, regretting every decision hes ever made in his life, when the voice of Mumbo started ringing in his ears.

"Grian…? Are you okay?"

Of course, Grian wasn't okay, and the only thing he wanted more than to call Mumbo a spoon was to roll over so he was off of his face. It was starting to hurt, just a little bit.

"...no."

“Do you hurt?”

Grian let his arms fall back to the wood. He tried to move his legs, his left could move a few centimeters while his right wouldn’t move at all and felt strangely more numb than the other.

"I think I broke my leg." After another attempt to move it, and an extremely sharp pain that followed afterwards, it was quite obvious that it was most definitely broken. He probably shouldn't have tried to stop his decent by flipping over.

Mumbo came around to look, keeping a few feet of distance between his feet and the splattered Grian.

"You're right… it's a bit crooked." Mumbo crouched down, sitting on the back of his heels as he got a bit closer. "Doesn't look natural."

"How grand…" Grian groaned, using his elbows as leverage to sit the upper half of his body up to see the damage. Yeah, it did look really gross, considering he knows how own leg isn't supposed to bend there. He was mentally giving Mumbo tally points for every second he continued to stare at his broken leg.

"Hey, Mumbo." The taller of the two looked up, the largest amount of concern Grian had ever seen in one person was plastered right onto his face.

Yet, he only replied with, "Yes, Grian?"

"Can you help me up?" He looked back down to his leg, deciding not to attempt to move it again. "I don't think I can stand."

"Let's get you up." The Hermit kneeled behind his head, lifting him up by his armpits until his leg was a dead weight in the air.

Mumbo took the added effort of shifting his hold to carry Grian bridal-style, keeping his grip light on the askew leg.

"Where to?"

"My-" Grian had to swallow a lump in his throat. The cracked and shattered bone had definitely begun to hurt. It felt like a searing fire, melting lava poured directly onto his bones by an evil creature with no remorse. "My base."

"Right, hold on, this is going to be a bumpy ride."

With a recently bought pair of Elytra, Mumbo pushed off the ground. 

He barely got a foot off the ground before the Elytra folded back. Mumbo groaned in exasperation, shaking his head.

"This happens every time, I barely ever get a good lift off." He tried a few more times, not getting above two feet each time, before Grian stopped him with a few pats to the shoulder.

"Rockets help." He got out.

"Oh yeah, but I'm fresh out, sadly."

Grian tried his best to not roll his eyes as he pulled out his last batch of rockets. He'll have to take a trip to Tango's shop once his legs stops emanating excruciating pain.

"Get ready…"

Mumbo stood at the edge of the treehouse, Elytra fluttering in the slight breeze flowing past. Grian stared ahead, planning for a flight he couldn't do himself. His wings were tucked in, folded over where the other held him up, twitching and sore and so extremely ready to stay unused for the next few days.

"GO!" Grian yelled as he pulled the string, sending both him and Mumbo into the air in split seconds. Mumbo had little control and it was genuinely painful to watch him try to fly.

It was worse directing him while in his arms.

"Left, no no no the other left- muMBO YOUR HEXAGON, oh God this  _ is  _ a Death Star. Now veer right- NOT THAT FAR, oh this is terrifying… Genuinely terrifying…"

Forcing him to ease up during the landing, Grian felt so much safer on the cobblestone platform more than anywhere in the vicinity of a flying Mumbo Jumbo.

"I can honestly say that was the worst flying I've ever seen before in my life." Grian mocked as he was sat down onto the bed. His right leg stung so badly, but he did his best to hide the pain. He was always so good at it…

Wait, what?

"I'll bet you were just as bad as a flyer your first round." Mumbo laughed.

"Nope, I've always been amazing at flying, you're just terrible at it."

Mumbo gave a short chuckle before going silent. He couldn't stop watching Grian's broken leg, as if constant surveillance would pop it back into place. 

"I need to shift it back into place before it starts healing like that." Grian said, leaning back onto he elbows. 

"Yes, we do, but I think we need someone slightly more able to do it than either one of us." Mumbo said, pulling out his communicator as he turned around to face the ocean.

Grian could see him pushing a few buttons, waiting, waiting, get slightly annoyed, and then perk up at a response. 

"Alright," he turned back. "He's on his way here!"

"Who is?!" Grian shot up halfway, looking Mumbo dead in the eyes.

"Biffa!"

"Oh no."


	13. Pickled

After the few excruciating minutes of Biffa shifting the pieces of his bones back together and wrapping it in wool and hardened clay, Grian laid in the bed on his large cobblestone platform. He'd been told to take it easy for a few days. Stop building and just rest while his leg tried to heal.

Good thing he had other things to do or he might've gotten bored.

On his bed was an array of colored pencils and markers and a few pads of paper.

He was trying his best to create a design for his base, Grian Empire 2 written at the top of the page in cyan letters. So far, the fifty-odd designs he came up with and henceforth crumbled up and threw them at a nearby chest, all looked too odd, too misshapen, or too like a flower pot.

This time, though, he thinks he has a good design. Three layers, a ring with a wall, three towers that are slanted at the top…

The only thing missing was what he was going to put on the top.

There is a space between the roof of the top layer and build height for him to put something there. Honestly, it doesn't look  _ finished  _ with nothing on the top, but it doesn't look right whenever he tries to design something to go there.

He has since started on a different pad of paper to design something to put there, but now he's on the last two pages and about to tear his hair out.

He has tried to draw a planet, a statue of an angel, hell, he drew the symbol of his kind a few times before he just threw the entire pad if paper at a chest and screamed.

It was a nice way to let out his frustration. With his broken leg, he wasn't able to do anything but sit here and draw up plans he couldn't think of. He could barely move without his wings, he could barely  _ build _ his base because of the sea.

Well… there was something he could do.

Yeah… he… He wasn't completely useless.

He could… He could go out and collect resources! He could go hang out with one of the other Hermits! He could start a shop!

Yes!! A shop!! A pickle shop!! 

Grian hopped out of the bed, limping his way around the platform and scavenging through chests to find glass and white concrete, green wool, green terracotta and green concrete. Once he had those, he organized them the best he could into shulker boxes, fanned his wings and prepared to take off before…

Where… 

Where are the pickles?

He can't start a pickle shop without pickles!!

"Where have all of my pickles gone?” He searched through the chests and shulker boxes a few more times, limping around with a purpose.

Once the search above water proved fruitless, he decided underwater might prove better results. 

First, he dipped the makeshift cast into his water elevator for a moment to make sure it wouldn’t crumble in the water. After a few seconds of testing the waters, he dove in, the water strangely warmer than he’s used to. He shook off the water like a dog.

He walked back up the short staircase into his old wooden shipwreck. There weren't any shulker boxes, but the single and double chests were completely full of dirt, cobble and other useless or miscellaneous materials.

Still…

"Where are all of my pickles? I know I had at least a stack somewhere around here!" Grian ran his hands through his hair a few times. He had to find his pickles in order to create a pickle shop, but his pickles are nowhere to he found…

God, his organization situation is criminal.

Checking the chest nearest his cow farm, he found the pickles. Finally.

Using the water elevator as a boost, the second he was in the air, he opened up his wings and started gliding to the shopping district. The weight of the cast made flying a bit odd, having to use his right wing more than his left in order to keep his balance.

Once he arrived to the small district, he scoped out a place to start the shop. Fortunately, there was a little mound that he could start with. He started with the large jar, using green stained glass in order to get a good looking pickle jar. It turned out much larger than he first expected, but oh well, it would work. He made a few floating pickles of terracotta and concrete and stuck a few chests and sea pickles everywhere. Before he put on the iron cap, he filled it with water to the brim, which took a long few hours of flying to the ocean with a few buckets, dumping them into the pickle jar, and flying back for a refill.

Once the cap came on, the sun set, but he still wanted to get this pickle shop finished and done with.

He caved out a hole underneath the enormous pickle jar, covering it in green wool, green terracotta, and green concrete. And, of course, because it’s a build by Grian, he made his face in the far end of the hole, visible right as when you enter. It reminded him somewhat of the Empire’s tunnels, the cave he made right under spawn. He took a while making railroads and support beams under every Evolutionist's base, well, everyone except...

Ah, memories.

He made the water elevators to and from the pickle jar and a little safe-landing pool for the other Hermits.

Grian was a few seconds away from making a feasible exit before he had another dastardly plan. Why not have no exit? Or at least let them have a little challenge leaving. He knows the Hermits aren’t very well versed with what they use to fly, their Elytras, and they typically only fly in open spaces and not a deep hole in the ground like this one. If they use their rockets to take off, they are sure to hit the ceiling or the walls.

It was perfect.

He grabbed a few signs for the sole purpose of puns, placing most of them in the pickle jar, but he saved his best one for last.

_ “It seems you’re in a bit of a pickle!” _

It was the one that will taunt the shopper once they realize there is no real exit. It was great, this was the best way to make a profit out of pranks. It was amazing, spectacular, perfect.

He flew out cast heavier from the wet wool, but he didn’t care. This would the one of the best pranks on the server if he had anything to say about it.


	14. Pranks, again, and Taurtis

He started the first ring of concrete, and unsurprisingly, he was completely out of resources before he even finished the first ring. He could barely do anything until he got this stupid cast off of his leg…

Grian groaned as he threw himself onto the unmade red bed. He couldn’t do much. There was a limit to how much he could build at this moment. He couldn’t build for too long, or his wings would tire, as they have a lot recently. Mining was now completely out of the question, just… absolutely out of the question.

He could do something else productive instead of sitting here like an unproductive member of society. For example, he could do some enchanting, discuss the future of Architects with Mumbo, organize his storage…

Nah, strike that last one.

Maybe he’ll just do what he’s always been good at, pranking.

And he’ll start with his favorite subject… Good ol’ Mumbo.

Grian nabbed a few things he'd need for a prank against Mumbo, and that small island Mumbo owned was just the perfect place to make it. 

He cleared out an area, 14x14 "circumference" and only dug five feet down before he remembered…

This was something he used to do in Evo all the time, and it could only happen because their world was buggy, cracked. There were a few things that could happen because of their flawed world. For example…

He put down a bit of grass, then the two block height flower then the…..

The sand fell right through. 

He took in a breath. That was fairly irritating. Alright, he would have to scrap this prank for another time. For now, he just had to convert this hole up and try another prank, maybe on someone who is unsuspecting…

He took a look at his communication device, and looking through everyone who was currently online, he found his targets. 

Both Jevin and Xisuma were currently afk, and his creatively destructive mind had just the prank for them. 

Good thing flying machines weren't that hard to make.

He switched or the materials he was carrying fairly quickly, he wanted to get these pranks in before the sun set, which might happen sooner than he would like. Although flying machines are easy, he was still utter shit at redstone. 

So he did go over to Mumbo's place for a bit of assistance, which was helpful. Mumbo did ask what the short flying machine lessons were for, but Grian didn't say anything. He also did mention anything about the failed prank a few islands away. He didn't need to know of his first failed prank.

He flew away faster than he probably should have, the cast felt like it was being pulled off during his quick escape.

Jevin's house was fairly easy to find, what with the Modern district just on the other side of the Shopping District… gee why were there so many districts?

Grian landed and it took a few seconds for him to be able to not topple over. At this point, he really wants his leg fixed and the cast off. Maybe he should find someone who can brew potions and ask for one of healing? Maybe…

He knocked on the door, called Jevin's name a few times, then he let himself in. 

The blue slime-man was at the bottom of the stairs in what looked to be a storage room, AFK. He got a bit closer, poked the slime a bit.

AFK people have been and always will be fun to mess around with. They always look like they've fallen asleep standing up, but their eyes are open and droopy and they don't snore. Sometimes, they mumble or twitch, and sometimes they farm, and it’s quite a sight to see.

Jevin was drooling just a bit of slime. There was a small puddle of it on the floor.

Alright, now it’s time to build the machine.

He dug out a small pit out of the grass in his front yard; he promises he’ll fill it all back in later. For now, he tries his best to remember the small things Mumbo tried to teach him of flying machines. It wasn’t a long lesson, but it did help a lot, especially because he didn’t know what he was doing in the first place.

There were only a few machines that he has made in the past that had actually worked. Like the one robot he made of his dead twin he left in a world of crazed maniacs. But he was pretty sure the robot was infused with dark magic and wasn’t actually working properly, whatever works though.

He misses his brother, and he misses NPC, he forgot where they went. Taurtis might know, he was friends with the robot for a while.

For now, he should probably focus on making the machine.

-0-0-0-

Taurtis rested his face against his hand. Everything up in the Aether was so much more boring when Grian wasn’t around.

It was typically like this, Grian would be sent on missions while he would be left behind. Grian would go to a new world to escape Sam and he would be left behind. Grian and the others would all go through the water portals and he would be left behind…

Why was he always last? Why was he always the one coming up in second compared to Grian?

The only reason he had become a Watcher was because it would convince Grian to become one too…

Grian, Grian, Grian, It was like his life revolves around him or something. It’s not like he didn’t have any of his own adventures… or his own friends. It’s not like he didn’t have a life of his own!

Taurtis stood from the stairs to the Temple. He brought the world his  _ friend  _ resided in up to his eye level.

Hermitcraft, they called it…

Grian had something coming to him, he had to learn eventually that the world doesn’t revolve around him.

He left the planet sit in the air, puffed out his wings, and prepared to dive in. 

In a corner, where no other could see them, the Almighty Watchers stood. With malicious intent splattered all over where their masks could barely hide, they let the demonic magic they held in their hands fly to their youngest pupil.

It changed him when he entered the planet of Hermits, which is what they wanted.

"This shall be the fall of the Little Empire." They said. "He had it coming for a long time."


	15. Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween

Failed prank after failed prank after failed prank. That's all the day has been. He tried an old prank which had never worked in the world he was now in. He tried a new style of prank, which ended in the death of Jevin. He had to go a thousand blocks to go pick up Jevin’s items before they disappeared.

He had never gone that fast in his life before then.

Grian had also tried to pull a prank on Xisuma, and he honestly had no idea what he was trying to do. He tried to take some prismarine blocks, he guesses, he didn’t really know. He was stopped when Xisuma suddenly came back from his AFK daze.

So now he was upset and wet, which was not his favorite combo.

He looked in his inventory for extra rockets, and he found the shulker box full of Jevin’s things he had yet to give back. The wave of guilt overwhelmed him, he probably shouldn’t have tried to do such a risky prank to someone who he barely knew and ended up killing him with redstone he barely understood.

Finding he had no more rockets- he probably put his with Jevin’s, oh well- he flew back to the Modern District, leaving the shulker box full of items at the owner’s door and leaving a sign:

“Sorry -G”

  
  


Well, his name was on it now, and Jevin would definitely know who to target if he ever wanted to get back at his killer. 

Oh well, he should be fine. He’s heard around that Jevin wasn’t much of a person who holds a grudge.

He pushed off of the ground with his left leg, wings having a little bit of difficulty in catching the wind. Take-off took a few seconds, but once he got in the air, he headed straight for his base, which was slowly coming together.

He flew down to the platform covered in a circle of white concrete and a few bits of cyan terracotta everywhere. The walls were fairly high by now, but there was nothing between the white pillars. Meaning, he had to go out and get some glass soon to fill it all in.

Landing, he filed through the chest with all of his drawings in it to find the only one he deems finished. He shuffled through it a few times, and- of course, it’s in a different chest. Actually, he thinks it might be in a shulker box… or the box in the ender chest?

Oh gee, the paper was in his inventory this entire time. How did it even get there? He thought he swapped out everything he had in his inventory for the redstone materials?

Oh well, he doesn’t really care anymore. As long as he has it, he doesn’t really care. The base he drew looked like a three tiered cake, white, cyan terracotta, and cyan glass…

Wow, he was going to need so much more cyan dye than he has right now. He also might need to go clear out a desert so he had enough glass to complete the base.

Damn, this was going to take a while.

-0-0-0-

He crash-landed on an island that looked as if it had been deserted for years. There was only fully-grown trees, dusty crafting benches, and a stray boat here or there.

Although this place was the initial spawn, it seems not to be where every one of the "Hernits" reside. That's slightly upsetting, now he can't just perma-death Grian and the rest of the people on this world and blow up the remains in under an hour.

Thankfully there was a handy sign pointing him in the direction of the main island. It even looks fairly recent, too.

He spread his wings and, wow… his wings feel a bit heavier than when he was in the Aether. Different gravity? Or maybe they grew as a gift from The Watchers to help him kill Grian…

Yes, it was to help him kill Grian. 

Killing Grian was all that he was here for. 

Grian needed to die for his hubris.

Kill Grian. 

Kill Grian. 

Kill Grian. 

-0-0-0-

Grian was waiting for all of his glass to smelt at Mumbo’s Building of Super Smelting. He felt as if he had taken out the entire day just to clear out an entire desert and smelt it all into glass. It was probably going to take him even longer to find the flowers he needed to make all the glass  _ and  _ the terracotta cyan.

He hated how he always had to grind for materials in these types of planets. In the Aether, there was infinite possibilities, infinite blocks and infinite space.

To be completely frank, he misses just wandering around the Aether, making a few rustic houses here and there. He misses the game he came up with to fill up free time when himself and the others weren’t busy. Build Swap, he called it. It was fun.

He kicked his clay boot against the floor, watching the little dents form in the floor.

He was bored, and he had time to kill…

But he wasn’t feeling up to more failed pranks right now, so he just continued kicking at the floor.

Actually, he should probably turn his communicator back on. He turned it off after he saw that Jevin and Xisuma were offline to be as Sneaky as possible.

The initial buzz as the device turned on wasn’t what caught his attention. It was the rampant stream of buzzes and messages  _ after  _ it turned on that did.

<Xisuma> Someone just joined the world, it won’t tell me who

<Ren> That’s not remotely terrifying

<Stress> It wont tell u anythin?

<Xisuma> No,

<Xisuma> It’s like my data logs are locked

<Xisuma> Maybe?

<Xisuma> I honestly have no idea what is going on

<Doc> Can you find out using any back-access ways? I think that’s a thing

<Xisuma> I’ve been locked out of those as well…

<Xisuma> Actually, I think it just

<False> Xisuma?

<Cub> Is he still there?

<Xisuma> I just got completely locked out

<Xisuma> And that’s not even the best part

<Impulse> What?

<Xisuma> There looks to be a symbol of sorts overtaking the entire screen.

<Xisuma> It looks like a portal that’s a bit broken at two corners

That’s the sign of The Watchers… The broken bedrock portal is the sign of the involvement of The Watchers.

What were they doing here? Why did they send someone down into the world when they still had him down there?

Did he fail the mission? He never failed his missions. He was never notified that he failed his mission, either.

He was so confused….

<Grian> It’s the symbol of The Watchers. They’re sending people because you have found a way to block them out and their curious as to why. They must have sent in a fledgling.

<Mumbo>...

<Wels> How do you know that?

<Cleo> That’s oddly specific…

<Xisuma> What’s going on, Grian?

He had to stop himself from biting his lip off. Did he really want to admit anything else? What he already told them is probably going to get him killed, if he isn’t already going to be murdered for what he’s done. And, to be honest, he still isn’t sure about what he’s done.

Yes. He’s gonna tell them.

Probably not everything, but everything they need to know.

<Grian> I’ve compromised a mission, I believe.

<Iskall> Wha

<Stress> Wha do ya mean?

<Tango> What is going on

<Grian> I am technically a Watcher, but not a fully fledged one, still a child of sorts to them.

<False> wait,

<False> how old are you?

<Grian> I’m 26!!

<Grian> And kind of immortal…

<Grian> I don’t really remember, oh well

<Ren> What

<Grian> Anyway, back on track, we should be weary of whoever they sent here. If The Watchers were smart, they would send someone way stronger than I am…

<Grian> So, this is me asking you all for help. I know I don’t get along with everyone, and I hope to amend that if I live through this.

<Mumbo> I know I’m not the best at fighting, but I’ll try my best to help!

<Doc> We got your back

<False> I’m always ready to fight!

<Grian> Good, because whoever came is mostly coming for me first. We’re going to set up some stuff in my base trap-wise.

<Xisuma> Grian,

<Grian> Yeah?

<Xisuma> Please try not to crash the world…

<Grian> Pfft, alright

Grian turned off the com with a wicked smile on his face.

He needs to get back to his base and start the pranks as soon as possible. And he needs to grab Evo asap. That is something that needs to be protected. 

He grabbed the newly smelted glass and flew back to his own base, propelled by rockets from Tango’s shop. From where he was flying, he could see a few others flying through the air to his general direction. Flase, clad in diamonds and wings. Ren, with his tail wagging in anticipation. Mumbo, trying his best to  _ begin _ to fly through the air.

Grian was surprised he had friends here, especially because his goal wasn’t to make any  _ aquaitances,  _ nonetheless friends.

It pleased him to know he could still make friends, even if he wasn’t supposed to make them.

That was probably why The Watchers have sent someone to execute him. Maybe they thought he was compromised?

Well, he wouldn’t know until his executioner got here. No point in stressing himself out.

He flew above his base and dropped himself above the water elevator to his old shipwreck. With haste, he ran to the captain’s quarters and grabbed the floating world of Evo. He would love to sit here and reminisce about his time there, but he didn’t have enough time.

He needed to start traps now, or there would be no chance of survival.

Getting back to his fancy kinda-almost-not really finished concrete and terracotta base, Grian was met with the sight of other Hermits. False, Ren, Mumbo, Impulse, Wels, Cleo, Iskall, Stress, Doc, Zedaph, Tango, Scar, Cub, and Xisuma…

“I want to thank you all for showing up here in the first place. I know you might be a bit busy and helping me might not be what you were thinking of when you woke up this morning.” Some people started chuckling, at least that killed the extremely tense air.

“Now, I don’t know who is coming for me, but I do know what is going to happen.” Grian had to take a quick breath, and his hands started shaking. He pulled his sleeves over his hands.

“They’re going to try and kill me, then they’ll realize we’ve been exposed and destroy the planet.”

“They’ll do wHAT NOW?” False screeched. She had a hand to her sword and a sort of crazed look in her eyes.

“It’s standard Watcher procedure. We’re supposed to build towers and help players advance to the next update, but we are not supposed to be seen. If we are, we are supposed to destroy the world and every living creature on it.”

“They’re not allowed to do that!” Ren yelled. “You can’t just destroy a planet for no reason!”

“I don’t think you-” Grian stopped when the ground started shaking, the water started spilling into the base because of how the waves grew.

Grian thumped his cast onto the ground. It still hurts like hell, and it itches… so bad… He had to ignore it for now, even if it still gave him unbearable pain, he  _ had  _ to ignore it.

Something in the air changed. The sky grew purple, though the sun still hung high. The smell of sulfur flooded from every direction. 

Stomachs dropped, hearts leaped.

His hands shook.

"Right," Grian turned to his fellow Hermits.

"Let's get started."


	16. The Fight and Finale

The symbol of The Watchers had spread across the sun, making a layer of purple cover the sky. Clouds looked like eyes, watching and judging from above. Whoever was sent to kill Grian was coming closer and was doing it faster than anyone would have liked.

Still, it didn’t take long, now that he had helpers who didn’t want permadeath. His tiered base was finished quickly. It looked amazing, and it was so large on the water.

Unfortunately, he might die before he was able to live in it, which was kinda sad.

He saw a few of his fellow Hermits below finish up a few traps. Though everyone was on the same page for one grand trap. Everyone was clad in mismatched armor with invisibility potions in their hands. Cleo was finishing up the other invisible armor stands that were also covered in random pieces or armor.

He hasn’t seen that trick before, but he supposes it’ll work.

It has to. They all have to.

A sonic boom filled the air; a black silhouette with wings cast a shadow in front of the sun.

It was time.

Cleo finished equipping the armor stands and quickly told everyone to drink their potions. They stood, looking like floating armor, on small smooth stone slabs.

“Everyone, be prepared.” Grian said as he pulled out a rocket. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see swords shifting, bows bouncing in the air, and a few axes resting against the ground.

He pulled the string of the rocket, watching as the gunpowder wrapped in paper flew into the air; leaving a trail of white smoke as it passed through the terracotta rings and into the sky. He watched through the wall of stained glass as The Watcher Fledgeling took notice of the rocket and steadily flew closer.

It would seem like he was alone, like he was casually working. Placing sea lanterns under carpets to spread more light in his unnecessarily large base. Everyone around him was invisible, you would have to squint to see the particles.

A set of feet clicked as they touched the concrete floor behind Grian. He tried his best to pretend he didn’t hear it, but his heart was beating too fast. He didn’t want to turn around, but he needed to see who was here. He needed to see who they sent to be his executioner.

As it turns out, he didn’t need to. He could recognize that voice from anywhere. From high school, from the empire, from evo, from the Aether. It was always that voice that helped him carry on whenever times got rough, when he just couldn’t take everything anymore..

“Grian.”

Without turning, Grian set aside the building materials that clogged his inventory space into a chest right next to him, leaving his weapons in clear view.

“Yes?”

“I am here for one reason, and I’m pretty sure you already know what it is.” 

“Yes,” He turned. “I know, Taurtis.”

There were at least 10 meters between the two. Grian could see the tripwire on the floor, Taurtis probably knew it was there, too. Watchers are all knowing, and he definitely look like a Watcher now.

His friend was shrouded in a dark cloak, glowing purple lines were carved into his skin. He could definitely make out eyes out of the glowing lines. His eyes glowed, shone. They’d be a light source if the sun had set.

Well, that definitely made his heartbeat raise.

“I am here to make you pay for your Hubris. I will take you back to the Aether and cut off your head in front of our Almighty. You can come quietly and I might spare this world. If you don’t...” Taurtis’ left arm shifted from under the cloak, bringing out a glassy obsidian sword. It shone, reflecting light off of the surface, nearly blinding.

Taurtis didn’t need to finish for him to know what would happen if he resisted. He’d just die messy and quicker.

“I don’t think my pride is the problem here, friend.” Grian joked, trying to  _ not  _ get a heart attack.

“The Watchers find you an inconvenience, so you shall be disposed of.” The eye’s of his skin narrowed, everything in the world dulled out into greys and whites, but the color purple continued to shine through.

“Oh, so first I’m the most promising of all the Fledgelings, but suddenly, now I deserve to die for, what, pride?”

“Essentially.” He raised the sword, pointing it at his target’s neck. “You can either come quietly, or I could kill you now.”

Grian backed up. He’d almost forgotten what it felt like to be near Watcher magic. It’s been so long… too long. The magic was always addictive, it drew you in and forced you to stay, promising power and freedom.

It’s always power and freedom.

He shut his eyes, shaking his head. He needed to focus, he needs to-

“Grian,” Taurtis said, echo lost in his voice. “Come back to us.”

He pushed against the power, not willing to submit to the ones who want him dead. There were too many connections he made here, too many that he wasn’t supposed to make in the first place. He couldn’t die now. He still had a shop to make.

There was a burning sensation in his skull, pushing against the back of his eyes. It was a feeling he didn’t miss from his time in the Aether, during his training.

It stopped suddenly, and the sound of swords clanging against each other and pistons firing were muffled to his ears. Ringing covered most of the sound, and blackspots in his eyes had his vision squared away.

Though, the small pulse of power that spread through his body for a brief second had fixed something… Good thing the clay was easy to get off.

-0-0-0-

The Watcher or whatever hadn’t fallen into any one of his traps yet. It was difficult to make any more while he was invisible, he didn’t know where his hand was unless he hit himself in the face. 

Mumbo, along with Cub, continued to make the traps as quickly as they could. The sound of their friends fighting this god-like being ten feet away from where he was wiring redstone really got his blood pressure up.

False came flying in his direction, he had to duck down the hole he was in so their heads wouldn’t collide. She wasn’t down for longer than a second, though. Her poison tipped arrows came out the moment her feet touched the ground again. 

They had some brave and amazing fighters in the world, but they were barely making a scratch on the being.

Mumbo watched the purple being with eyes, a Watcher? He thinks he recalls Grian calling him Tortoise or something. Anyway, Tortoise pushed out a wave of purple-power and Mumbo fell back into the hole as quick as he could. Meaning, he fell back into the still-invisible Cub.

“Whoa, watch where you’re falling, there.” He said, dropping the redstone he was still trying to wire to a dispenser.

“Sorry,” Mumbo climbed back up the hole they made, scanning the area.

Everyone was visible again and in the process of eating golden carrots and putting on Elytra and armor. The Watcher was floating a few inches above the ground, glaring at everyone below him. He looked displeased, like everyone was a minor inconvenience in his master plan.

In the corner of the base, he saw his friend. Grian was hacking away at the cast on his leg with an axe he’s never seen before. Mumbo crawled out of the hole he made and scrambled over to his friend.

“Gr- Grian, what are you doing?”

Mumbo looked into his eyes at they shot towards him. Instead of the black irises, his eyes were deep vats of dark purple mist. His pupils were broken up, not unlike the symbol that had covered the sun. Grian looked back down, turning the axe to the wooden piece that kept the blade in and swung it down on what was left of the clay cast. It shattered, small bits falling to the ground when he moved to stand.

“There,” His voice echoed. “That’s finally out of the way.”

“How- How did… When did your leg heal?”

“Just now.” Upon Mumbo’s look of utter confusion, he clarified, “Watcher magic.”

“Ah,”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Grian said, spreading his wings and shaking out the clay dust in the feathers. “I need to knock some sense into my friend.”

Mumbo watched as his friend pushed off the ground, a rush of wind following in his wake. He was worried about Grian, so much so he could feel his body trembling. He wishes he could help, but this fight was now far out of his reach as a redstoner. It was far out of all the Hermit's reach.

-0-0-0-

He went tunneling to his friend, wings going as fast as they could and axe ready to swing.

It cut through the air, the blade being thrown down to Taurtis' head faster than sound.

Unfortunately, Watcher instincts are doing more harm than good for him. Taurtis was able to glide to the right before imminent doom, causing Grian to grow a small amount of frustration in his head. He swung again, missing Taurtis' shirt by a hair.

"Are you really trying to kill me with your assigned weapon? The one we trained together with?" Taurtis asked, eyes rolling.

"Trust me," Grian smirked, and he could  _ feel  _ the color in his eyes. "It'll do the job."

He swung the axe once, twice, a third time that just barely missed his head. Taurtis dropped a three foot distance to the floor, and while Grian looked down to him, shot back up into the sky, through the tiers of the base and back into open sky, sword slicing through the air as he went.

Grian was too close. Not able to back up in time, the blade sliced through the skin on his face, a straight line from his cheek to his forehead.

It healed and scarred over in an instant, but the blood on his face made a lovely spatter.

He growled, pushing the air through his feathers. The levels of his base blurred past as he quickly gained on his friend. He swiped at Taurtis with his axe, which was immediately blocked by the obsidian sword.

"You really want to fight me?" Taurtis asked, pushing Grian away with a flick of the sword.

"I want my best friend back." Grian muttered, spitting the words out.

Grian charged, axe at the ready for another swipe.

-0-0-0-

"They're really goin' at it." Stress remarked, staring at the two Watchers in the sky. 

"Is there any way for us to give support from the ground?" False asked, shifting her sword from hand to hand.

"We have tridents." Doc said with a smirk. "And other ranged weapons. We can still give Grian some cover from the ground."

"Oh," Tango looked around, checked in his inventory twice, then looked back in a nearby chest.

"What's up?" Zedaph said, walking over to his friend, accompanied by Impulse.

"I don't think I brought any arrows with me." Tango laughed, looking through his inventory again.

Wels came over, brandishing a stack and a bit of arrows to the fire demon.

"Don't miss." He said, trident in hand.

"Wouldn't think about it." Tango smiled, nocking the arrow and pulling the elastic string back. He aimed, the tip of the arrow alight with flames, and let it fly in the direct line of the Watcher's cloak.

A tirade of arrows, splash potions, and tridents followed it, and Grian was smart enough to back.

A pulse emitted from Taurtis, all the arrows and tridents that stuck into his skin fell to the ground. His blood wasn't red, but thin strains of the glowing purple essence fell from poked holes in his skin. He looked pissed, but Grian saw his chance in the small particles that came off of his being.

A slowness-tipped arrow…

Finally, he rushed Taurtis, swinging the axe wildly, but effectively. He turned the axe over in his hand, and struck his friend in the head with the handle.

Taurtis' eyes rolled to the back of his head, slumping in midair.

Grian caught him before he could fall, easing the both of them to the ground.

He sat on his legs, letting Taurtis' head rest on his chest. Every one of the Hermits had come over, watching the end of the fight.

Oh, he almost forgot.

"Does anyone have a golden apple, a potion of weakness and a healing?"

Ren handed him the two potions, while Xisuma tossed him the golden apple.

"Alright you all might want to stand back for this." Uncapping both the bottles, Grian dipped the weakness potion through his friend's lips first. Then, he took a good chunk of the golden apple, mushed it, and pushed it in his mouth as well.

His entire body started shaking, whimpering and whining as the effects took their course. They eyes on his skin closed, dripping away like water.

Then, he was left with his friend, still shivering, but his best friend. He quickly gave Taurtis the healing potion before the harming could do any more damage.

So, there he was, sitting in his finished base with most of his friends surrounded around him.

He really wish it didn't have to end.

-0-0-0-

"Do you really have to go?" Iskall asked, rubbing his hands together.

“Yes, and I’m sorry, to the both of you.” Both Iskall and Mumbo looked at him with concern written all over their faces.

“You don’t have to leave! I know everyone here is very accepting of people who’ve tried to destroy this world before, like Tango and Biffa.” Mumbo said.

“Wait, Biffa tried to destroy this world before? The same Biffa that fixed my leg, Biffa?”

"Yeah, He went on a murdering and pranking rampage a little while back, but it's all resolved now."

"Huh," Grian looked back to Taurtis, who was playing in a small patch of poppies in the Shopping District. "Well, we dont have that much of a choice. Taurtis and I are going to have to planet hop for a little while before we can safely come back. The longer we're gone, the safer all of you will be when we come back."

"And you promise you'll be back?" Iskall asked, resting a hand on Grian's shoulder.

"Yes. It won't be soon, it won't even be in the next few months, but we'll be back, count on it." Grian smiled. It only took a few seconds for Mumbo to pull them both in a hug. Without really thinking about it, Grian's wings spread and circled around the other two Hermits, making them a small temporary cocoon of warmth.

"We're gonna miss you, man." Iskall said, pulling away.

"I'm going to miss you all too." Jumbling around his head for anything else he wanted to say before he went, he remembered  _ something. _

"Mumbo, remember what we talked about in the last meeting?"

"Do you mean the st-"

"Yes!" Grian pulled out a few papers from his inventory shuffling them around before handing them over to the two. "I expect to see this finished when I come back." He joked.

"When did you… Did you do all of this- all the planning?" Iskall looked wide-eyed at all the papers with different levels and blueprints to… whatever it is. The only thing that took away any officiality of it was the fact that everything was written in crayon.

"Yup, everything except the redstone systems for it!"

"Good."

They all took another few minutes for farewells before Grian took off into the sky with Taurtis. Iskall and Mumbo watched from the ground, once the two hit build height, it looked like they disappeared in a wave of purple smoke.

Mumbo and Iskall went back to the papers.

"So, what's all this?" Iskall asked, peering over Mumbo's shoulders as he rifled through the papers.

"Grian and I had planned to make a store, but that was about how far we went with planning. It looks like he did most of the work while on bedrest, we just need to come up with the redstone system to do it."

"Oh, well, what's it called?"

"Uhh, I think…" Mumbo flipped back to one of the first pages, a list of names all crossed off in red crayon. One wasn't, a single name circled in many different colors. The next page was full of different fonts of the same name.

"Its called Sahara, and according to this, we've been given a lot of room for this."

He and Iskall walked past the IOU stands, near the peak of the mountain where Ren's HRN railway line passed through.

This was definitely the place they were going to start.

Iskall put a sign down, marking the land.

' _ Architects' _

-0-0-0-

"Are you sure they'll be okay with letting me come back? I did just try and destroy their entire world."

"You'll be fine, I'm 100% sure none of them are holding anything against you. Even if they will, I would protect you."

"Like what happened to Sam?"

A giggle. "Exactly like what happened with Sam." 

The two laughed together, treading across a barren world they found.

"How long are we going to be out on our own until we go back to them?"

"Hopefully not too long. I'm going to keep as much energy as possible so I can teleport us both back in an instant. For now, I'll help you learn to fight better."

"Wha- there's nothing wrong with how I fight!"

"You were possessed by our boss and you still weren't able to beat me."

"Well, that's because you cheated! You are a cheater and you know it!"

They both laughed together and planned to make a small shelter… for now. And when they were found by the Watchers, they would move again, and again, and again.

And they did.

-0-0-0-

Months had passed, it was getting closer to a year since Taurtis and Grian had left their world. So much has happened since then, and the Hermits were, as always, so proud to display their work. Ren joined the Architects after the events of the Civil War. TFC came uf from his hole more often, though it was mostly for the shops. Scar and Cub expanded ConCorp and even made an Elytra course for no other reason but they needed more practice for their Elytra and wanted to make some quick diamonds. Joe had started the Joe head hunt, where he scattered copies of his own head around the world and gave a reward for whoever collected the most.

Xisuma found the world border after the update. They needed to get pass the border in order to get access to the new update, but there was no way for them to break it. Doc and False have been trying to break it down with weapons, while Mumbo and Iskall attempted to make a traveling redstone machine to break it.

Nothing worked.

A few days pass and a group of them come together to finally try and break the border down together. For hours on end, they attack the border, but there seems to be no damage to it in the slightest.

They decided to break for lunch, relaxing on the dirt and just chilling out before returning to work.

Everyone was eating golden carrots and steaks, chatting, while some were still trying to throw rocks at the border.

A few minutes later, everyone got back to working. A few minutes after, in flew two shadows in the sunlight from the other side of the border. They flew down together, wings slowing them down as they barely touched the floor.

They stepped towards the border and each pit a hand on the red-glassy wall. From where they touched, grew purple splinters, crawling their way up the wall. Even though the barrier was supposed to be soundproof, you could hear every minute crack, like ice freezing rapidly.

The barrier shattered and fell, but as the shattered bits of glass dropped to the ground, they disappeared into the grass. The two people in cloaks looked on, watching the Hermits as they stood there and gaped.

Then, they both took off the hoods, smiling to their audience.

“Hey guys,” Grian said. “We’re back.”


End file.
